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So I was just a little bit careless when the money was rolling in. You know how it is on a Friday night when you get your pay.

I couldn’t take it home with me. Being married to a nagging electorate is not fun and you have to let your hair down sometimes. At least that’s what my mates are saying.

We wasted all the boom on stuff it is best you don’t think about. I know the State debt has grown from under $3billion to over $30billion while I’ve been in office. You know W.A. Inc. never really went away.

Anyway, never mind that. We have to raise all our charges again, and cut all sorts of essential services. Those hospitals which keep breaking down had to be built so our Serco mates can make their fortune. And soon we will be able to hand the Education Department over to them as well.

Power charges will go up again this year, along with water, transport and licences.

Someone has to fill up that debt hole. I’m afraid you will all have to go out and work a bit harder to pay off my debt.

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Being unbelievably ancient, stories of my youth stretch back into the late 1940’s.

Dad had come back from the war in the Pacific and my parents presented me with a younger brother. Dad went farming. Farm labouring in the West Australian Wheatbelt. Sowing and harvesting wheat and feeding a flock of sheep on the stubble. He was paid a small wage with keep. A house and a sheep per week. We moved around a bit but that was another story and not really understood by my young ears.

Anyway, this is a story which took place on a farm probably just outside a small town called Dalwallinu in the Spring of about 1949.

There was no scheme water so we had to rely on stored rain water in the tank. Baths were in three inches of water after everyone else had bathed. Younger brother and I cleaned our teeth leaning over the edge of the verandah with a glass of water in our hand. The ground was gravel and about three feet down. Quite a drop when you are little.

One of the perks of farm life was the collection of pets and animals in a child’s life. We had Skip, the Red Cloud Kelpie who couldn’t see through the stubble so he stood up on his hind legs to see where the sheep were. Then he would drop down and sort those ovines out. Skip’s Mum had done the same thing.

Then there were the orphaned lambs. Mum had a soft spot for them and we often had a baby lamb which needed feeding and so lived around the house. Eventually they were weaned and sent back to the flock.

The year I was five Lambsie was a nice friendly little pet. As tends to happen with young animals, it got a bit bigger and started hanging around us. It was included in our games. It always kept an eye on us when we cleaned our teeth with Kolynos toothpaste and our little glass of water.

Time passed. Possibly a month or two. We noticed that Lambsie was developing little bumps on its head. Dad explained that it was going to be a ram and those bumps were baby horns.

Eventually the natural thing happened. One evening we were standing on the edge of the verandah cleaning our teeth when instinct kicked in. Lambsie lined younger brother up and butted him off the verandah. He fell all the way down to the ground. Where he got quite angry.

I made the mistake of laughing and was leaning over the edge to see the fallen heap down there on the ground. Lambsie then dealt with me! Together, down there on the gravel, we were both teary and very angry with Lambsie. We demanded, in our four and five year-old way that Dad do something about him.

Lambsie disappeared.

The next Sunday we had our roast dinner. Younger brother asked what had happened to Lambsie and Dad told us that he was our dinner.

Being little boys and harbouring a lot of resentment against Lambsie we ate on with greater relish! And extra mint sauce.

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ISIL and Colin Barnett

YES, there IS a connection.

Earlier this year we were horrified to learn that ISIL, in its barbarous rampage across parts of the Middle East had destroyed the ancient cities of Ninevah and Nimrud. They burnt the library at Mosul which contained 8,000 irreplaceable ancient manuscripts. The UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova called the destructions in Mosul a violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2199, and the destruction of Nimrud a war crime.

Now Colin Barnett, Premier of Western Australia, has decided that the Burrup Peninsula Rock Art should no longer be afforded the protection of being a Sacred Site. “Burrup Peninsula ‘deregistered’ as sacred site“. The first step in degrading and destroying this irreplaceable site of world-wide importance. All in the name of Industrial Development. Once the thin edge of the wedge is allowed in, there will be gradual encroachment onto wider areas, destructive vandalism and many “Mia Culpas” from those who should be caring for this site. Yet a million mia culpas will not restore damaged art works to their pristine condition!

Colin Barnett is Australia’s ISIL!

What is “the Burrup”?

The “Burrup” is an ancient site, possibly six or eight times the age of Ninevah. A place where indigenous people recorded the world around them. It is still unknown whether this work was done as a religious duty, a record for future generations or simply for the joy of creating something as simple as ancient graffiti.

Known by the local indigenous peoples as “Murujuga” it is a petroglyph or rock engraving art gallery which dates back to before the last Ice Age. To a time when the living was relatively easy because there was time to spare from survival which was spent creating these labour-intensive works. To a time which included a period when the coastline was many kilometres to the West.

The Australian Geographic reported in 2013, “One group of petroglyphs showing land-based animals, is thought to date from a time during the last ice age, when sea levels were lower and the area was far inland. “

By measuring levels of Berylllium 10, a radioactive isotope that accumulates in the surfaces of rocks because of radiation from space and indicates how long they have been exposed to the elements, (results) support the idea that some of the rock art predates the last ice age, which occurred around 22,000 years ago, says Dr Ken Mulvaney, an archaeologist with Rio Tinto who produced the most recent age estimates based on the style of the art and weathering patterns.

The erosion “is such a slow process that the petroglyphs could remain visible for 60,000 years,” says Ken, who adds that neither he nor Brad (Professor Brad Pillans) think the rock art actually is that old. Based on current evidence people only arrived in this part of Australia sometime between 35,000 and 42,000 years ago”, he says.

SAVING THE BURRUP

There have been a number of efforts to preserve the Burrup for posterity.

2002; The National Trust of Australia (WA) and the Hon. Robin Chapple MLC nominated the Burrup Peninsula to the National Trust Endangered Places List

2003; the World Monuments Fund added it to its list of Most Endangered Places-the first time an Australian place had been included.

2004; the National Trust, the Native Title Claimants and Robert Bednarik, President of the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations, nominated the Dampier Archipelago to the National Heritage list, under the new Commonwealth heritage legislation.

2009; This cultural landscape continues to be threatened by industrial development. Rock art on the eastern side of the archipelago, on the Burrup Peninsula, was relocated following the discovery of adjacent off-shore gas reserves so that a major gas plant could be constructed. Work has now begun on the construction of a second major gas plant nearby.) So much for National Heritage!

This Burrup petroglyph may be one of the oldest carved faces in the world. (Credit: Ken Mulvaney)

TRUST GOVERNMENT PROTECTION?

SURE CAN’T!

Claims have been made that since 1963, 24.4 percent of the rock art on Murujuga has been destroyed to make way for industrial development. (Robert G. Bednarik, Dampier Fact Sheet, October 2006) The Western Australian government, responding to a question in parliament, has argued for a much lower figure, suggesting that approximately 4 percent of sites, representing approximately 7.2 percent of petroglyphs, have been destroyed since 1972. . Hon. John Ford, answer to question on notice, Western Australia Legislative Council Hansard, 16 August 2005. A classic apples and oranges response.

Still, as the Western Australian government has noted, there is no complete inventory of rock art in the region,(WA Department of Industry and Resources, Burrup Peninsula, Frequently Asked Questions,) making assessments of current and future impacts on the site a challenging task. (How convenient) Even more interesting is the fact that none of the online references used in the above quote from Wikipedia is still online. Cue deserved conspiracy theory!

BURRUP’S FUTURE

Western Australia has a culture of tearing down its history. Whenever a city building is old enough, it is torn down and replaced with a modern concrete and glass monstrosity and pristine bushlands are cleared for industrial sites.

This does not bode well for a site which is in the way of short-term industrialisation.

There is no financial benefit to having those petroglyphs. Certainly not in a time of the dumbing down of Australia. Some may well be placed in museums around the country. the rest will be moved, rearranged, graffitied and any excess will be dumped,destroyed or reused as building fill!

On the East Coast we are seeing the ISIL-like destruction of the Great Barrier Reef.

On the West Coast we will see the ISIL-like destruction of the Great Burrup Art Gallery.